of the Surrey downs when the barons
were at war, and of the four nothing worth the name of a castle remains.
Farnham's keep was broken down by Cromwell: Guildford is a shell,
Reigate and Bletchingley have disappeared altogether. Betchworth, never
fortified for war, was built later than the others, but Betchworth is an
insignificant ruin. The kings and the captains have passed, and their
buildings have followed them. The castles have gone down with the
palaces. Surrey never had a castle like Arundel; but she has not been
able to keep even a Pevensey or a Bodiam.

Yet Reigate castle and its owners shaped a great deal of English
history. It belonged to the great Earls de Warenne, the rival family to
the de Clares through all the early wars and intrigues of the kings and
the barons. It stood on the ancient British track, the "Way" which runs
east and west across the country. Its place on the Way was within reach
of the Roman road, the Stone Street that ran from Chichester to London.
Its possessor held the strongest strategic position between London and
the coastline, or between Canterbury and Winchester, and when there was
any fighting forward the lord of the highway cross roads, the ridge
gate, was the first person to be taken into account. The curious thing
is that there was so little fighting along the ridge. Reigate Castle
never saw a pitched battle. When Louis of France was riding by the ridge
to Winchester after King John, Reigate surrendered to the French, and de
Warenne only got his castle back by changing sides from John to Louis.
That was in 1216, and forty-seven years later, when Simon de Montfort
took the baron's army by the ridge to Rochester, Reigate could do no
more than watch the army march by. The de Warenne of the day was at
Lewes with the king, and when the king had lost all in the battle of
Lewes that followed, the lord of Reigate castle fled to France. He came
back the next year, and when de Montfort fell at Evesham, Reigate was
once more de Warenne's.

[Illustration: _Reigate._]

The kings must have found this particular de Warenne a little difficult
to deal with. He was a bit of a swashbuckler as well as a swordsman, and
once when he found himself getting the worst of a lawsuit at
Westminster with one Alan de la Zouche, he ran him through the body in
the king's own chamber and was off to Reigate before anybody could stop
him. King Henry was furious, and sent Prince Edward, the great de Clare,
and